Ali Abdelaziz is one of the most well-known non-fighters in the MMA world. As one of the biggest managers in the fight game, his biggest fighters include Khabib Nurmagomedov, Justin Gaethje, Kamaru Usman, Henry Cejudo, Frankie Edgar, and Islam Makhachev.
Everyone knows that the Dominance MMA founder had also been an MMA fighter once. Though not the best, one can’t disprove his credentials as a former mixed martial artist. What most people don’t know is that there is a very dark past that Ali has left behind him.
This situation came under the spotlight during the build-up to UFC 229. Conor McGregor insulted him by deeming him a “terrorist snitch”.
What is MOA? – Is Ali Abdelaziz linked to this organization?
Muslims of the Americas, or Jamaat ul-Fuqra, is a Pakistan and USA-based terrorist organization comprising mostly African-American Muslims. They are known to have a history of several violent assassinations and bombing conspiracies. Most famous for its 70-acre Islamic settlement ‘Islamberg’ in upstate New York.
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Abdelaziz got linked to the organization after his illegal entry into the United States of America. Let’s understand how he got connected with the organization and what led after.
How did Ali Abdelaziz get in contact with MOA?
This dark chapter of his life relates to his association with an extremist group named Muslims of the Americas and his deployment as an FBI spy in the cult group. It all started in 1996 when Abdelaziz illegally entered the USA as an Egyptian Olympic Judo athlete. During his training sessions at the Olympic Training Center, he was introduced to MOA.
Though he never explicitly stated how he first met MOA members, he said that he first met them at a mosque. Due to illegal entry into the USA and years of indulging in identity fraud and forgery, he was arrested by the authorities in December 2001. It was at that time that the authorities approached him to infiltrate MOA.
Ali Abdelaziz’s new mission as the Confidential Informant 184
After the authorities conducted a series of “tests” requiring Ali to pass them, he got chosen for the mission. It was to infiltrate deep into the MOA using his already established influence within the group. Interestingly enough, the NYPD codenamed him Dolphin and the FBI gave him the covert name of Tap Out.
He served as a covert agent for seven years from 2003-2010. It was the NYPD’s funding that helped him in setting up Dominance MMA Management. This would go on to serve as an explanation about the huge donations he used to make for MOA.
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By virtue of his huge donations and his martial arts skills which he used to teach others, he quickly rose through the MOA ranks. He became not only a respected member but powerful as well. As threatened by the NYPD, Abdelaziz married an underage girl to become even more respected within the group.
Both the father and the brother of the girl were high-ranked members of the MOA. The name of the girl he married was Fatima. They even had a son together. Not long after their marriage, Ali divorced her and abandoned her and their son.
He has even stated that he regretted his actions to this day and felt guilty for abandoning his son. He wished that one day he would be able to free his son from the clutches of MOA.
MOA’s connections with Kashmir
During his time as a spy, Ali Abdelaziz discovered that MOA used the political party Islamic Political Party of America (IPPA) as the front to serve as a cover for its actual activities. He also managed to gather information about a “Military Squad”. The intelligence based on and around MOA’s military squad was very alarming.
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The members of that group were trained in Pakistan and regularly participated in terror activities in the Kashmir region. Not to forget, issues persisted between India and Pakistan since the time of their independence and separation in 1947.
The souring of Ali Abdelaziz’s relationship with the MOA
There were several reasons for the breakdown in the relationship between Albelaziz and MOA. First, Ali’s personality. Due to certain reasons, many MOA members didn’t like him since the beginning. However, due to his stature within the organization resulting from his large donations, no one raised their voice against him.
The second factor was his divorce from Fatima. This divorce filled her brother and father along with other family members with immeasurable hatred towards Ali. The tensions rose at such an intense level that Ali finally left Islamberg.
The limited contact with Islamberg meant Abdelaziz could no longer operate efficiently as a covert agent. The third reason that explicitly served as souring their relationship was Ali’s reluctance to give up his pet dog. According to the MOA ideology, a pet dog is not allowed which Ali refused to abide by. Thus, greatly straining his relations with the terror group.
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The souring of Ali Abdelaziz’s relations with the government authorities
During this time, all was not well between the Egyptian and the FBI. The FBI was suspicious of him after he visited Egypt. They suspected that while being detained there, Ali leaked information revolving around his actual work.
They forced him to take a polygraph test where he was said to be deceptive. This polygraph test was advertently stopped by the NYPD as per the sources referred to. The FBI was skeptical of him while the NYPD trusted him thus, even defending him.
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As a result, the FBI even went on to make a report of this test while explicitly mentioning the interference of the NYPD. This is what they actually wrote in the report: “Deceptive with no admissions, interrupted and terminated by the NYPD.”
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Ultimately, he got dropped by the NYPD in 2010 as well. This was due to not following its instructions of not traveling overseas. Disobeying the orders, he flew to Abu Dhabi to attend UFC 112. To make matters worse, he used the green card issued to him to get a passport to fly abroad.
What is Ali Abdelaziz up to since being dropped as a spy
It is clear that Ali Abdelaziz has come a long way since coming out of his old life as an FBI and NYPD spy. After all, he has gone on to establish his Dominance MMA as the biggest representative of MMA fighters in the world. With a plethora of some of the most elite fighters as his clients, he is one of the most respected men in combat sports.
It won’t be wrong to say that he has managed to become a successful businessman without forgetting his MMA roots. Let us know in the comments what you think of Ali Abdelaziz’s criminal past and activities as an FBI informant.
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